Author Archive for: ‘admin’

I just updated the help system for one of my tutorial RCP applications to Eclipse 3.3. I wanted to use the Jetty stack instead of Tomcat, like the Eclipse 3.3 SDK does. Since the help on “RCP help” is still a bit outdated, it took me a while to collect all necessary plug-ins. Here is the list of plug-ins you need to deploy with your Eclipse 3.3 RCP based application if you want to use the Jetty stack (in alphabetical order):

Recently I implemented a customer-specific project wizard. Since I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, I took a look at the existing Eclipse project wizards. When comparing them I noticed a few (little) inconsistencies. As an example compare the screen shots of the Java project wizard and the Plug-in project wizard. First, the plug-in project wizard:

Then the Java project wizard:

The plug-in project wizard is actually reusing the general new project wizard while the Java project wizard does not reuse it. I personally like the UI design of the plug-in wizard better because it is smaller, makes better use of space and has a more intuitive semantics. Consider the following situation: An Eclipse newbie wants to create a NEW Java project but not create the project in the workspace. How would he do that? As an experienced Eclipse user he would know that he just selects “Create project from existing source” and then browse to an empty or even non-existing directory. But that is not what the radio button’s text suggests.

Personally I found it very curious that I use Eclipse for years now and never noticed that :). This example is of course not a big deal, but wouldn’t it be a good time now to take a look at the existing Eclipse UI from a new user’s point of view and improve the usability and the consistency a bit?
If you agree, vote for bug 199147.

Recently I purchased a Roku Soundbridge M1001 (in Europe distributed by Pinnacle). I also have a Fritz!Box Fon WLAN. The great thing I just discovered (up and running) is that AVM provides a “Lobor” (German for laboratory) version that includes a full UPNP media server. I just connected a 8GB USB stick with the Fritz!Box and now I can stream my complete audio archive to the Soundbridge without a running PC! That’s uber cool, isn’t it!

Recently I was invited to give a talk at TheServerSide Java Symposium in Barcelona, where I met Heinz Kabutz. Heinz is a nice guy and a real Java expert. He is also the author of a great Java newsletter. Take a look at http://www.javaspecialists.eu/, there you find more information about his newsletter.